Music for One Apartment and Six Drummers

Tradition has it that a short film proceeds the main features at film festivals, and Gothenburg Film Festival is no exception. I've seen shorts at this festival for ages, and they rank between annoyingly useless and downright masterpieces (such as "The wrong trousers"). "Six drummers..." is a story of six drummers who break into an apartment and make music on whatever they find inside (such as toasters, medicine packs, slippers and books). It's playful, innovative and a fresh breeze. The idea is superb, and the perfect timing of the actors/drummers is amazing. I sincerely hope that this film gets all the attention and appreciation it deserves and wins all awards available. Short films are often underrated and seldom shown. Perhaps this small masterpiece can convince theatre owners to add shorts before their feature showings. It can well be as effective for the whole cinema-going experience as an entre/appetizer can be for the whole dinner. "Six drummers..." puts you in the perfect mood for a complete movie experience. Plus, the music is amazing.

Martin, Sweden

When an elderly couple leave their apartment to walk the dog, a team of 6 very serious looking people enter the apartment on a strict time scale. The group proceed from kitchen to bedroom to bathroom to front room, using everything they find to create different patterns of beats and grooves.

I didn't have a clue what this was about when I watched it. At the start I assumed that the group were criminals or something the way they all dressed like cops from the Sweeney and walked with menace. However when they all got into the flat and began using things like blenders, toothpaste, pills etc to make beats I got into it real easy.

I was actually doing my ironing when watching this (a bit sad and domesticated!) and the beats are so good I actually began to bop to them! My favourite was the heavy baseline that they got off a stretched out condom!

The range of objects they use is inventive – but what makes it better is how good the beats sound. They are really funky….I thought that it would get old after a few minutes – but the beats kept me riveted for the whole 10 minutes. The ending is kinda cool but the short is really all about the beats!

Overall – different, clever, inventive, funky. I recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good beat.

This is a rather amazing musical short, as it looked as if it took forever to choreograph it. As a couple leave their apartment, a group of six odd people watch and wait until they are gone. Then, like a strike team, they break into the house and go from room to room playing music using household items such as food processors, glasses and doors as they drum and drum rhythmically. It's very infectious and high quality, so you'll likely find yourself tapping your feet or moving to the music. It is a film that would probably appeal most to teens, though anyone can enjoy it. Plus, even if this "isn't your thing", you can't help but admire the actors and film makers as the film must have taken extraordinary efforts to coordinate all of this frenetic action.

I happened to catch this short on broadcast TV some time ago and it has stuck in my mind ever since.

While the owners are out walking their dog, six odd-looking Swedes break into their apartment and pretty much trash the place, but with style and rhythm.

Quirky, but compelling and wholly entertaining. I Can't think of a single way in which it could be improved.

Available on DVD as part of a compilation called SHORT6 (I managed to order a copy from Amazon.co.jp and it arrived this morning - YAY!).

Get hold of a copy now; you'll watch it over and over.

This film is a brilliant little musical thriller, or maybe it is a thriller musical. Everyday activities and props come to life in a musical guerilla attac to a perfectly normal home and totally innocent victims. Marvellous